Working with K-12 Students to Create a Statistics Poster

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Working with K-12 Students to Create a Statistics
Poster

• John Gabrosek and Neal Rogness
• Grand Valley State University
• ASA Meeting Within a Meeting Webinar
• December 3, 2007

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A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE ASA - NCTM STATISTICS
POSTER COMPETITION

• The first national poster competition held in
  spring 1990 was a joint effort between the ASA
  Center for Statistics Education and the ASA
  Section on Statistical Graphics.
• In the mid-1990s the ASA and NCTM assumed
  responsibility for the poster competition through
  the ASA/NCTM Joint Committee.
• The national competition spawned numerous
  regional and statewide competitions.
• Statisticians at Grand Valley State University
  (GVSU) have organized a competition open to all
  kindergarten through grade 12 students in the
  state of Michigan since 2000.
• (background from Young 1998 and Rogness et. al
  2003).

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WHAT IS A STATISTICS POSTER

• A statistics poster is a visual display that uses
  one or more related graphs to summarize data,
  discuss different points of view, answer
  question(s) about and explore data.

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EDUCATIONAL GOALS OF A STATISTICS POSTER
COMPETITION ASA MISSION STATEMENT

• The ASA Mission Statement states that ASA should
• work for the improvement of statistical
  education at all levels.
• promote the proper application of statistics.
• ASA members are encouraged to use their expertise
  for
• the promotion and development of statistical
  education for the public and the profession.
• (http//www.amstat.org/)

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EDUCATIONAL GOALS OF A STATISTICS POSTER
COMPETITION

• The NCTM Standards set out a comprehensive vision
  for mathematics instruction of students from
  pre-kindergarten (age 4) through grade 12 (age
  18).
• Included in the NCTM standards are content area
  expectations related to statistics and
  probability.
• (http//standards.nctm.org/)

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NCTM STANDARDS

• The Data Analysis and Probability Standard
  indicates that students should be able to
  formulate questions that can be addressed with
  data and collect, organize, and display relevant
  data to answer them.

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NCTM STANDARDS

• The Data Analysis and Probability Standard
  indicates that students should be able to
  formulate questions that can be addressed with
  data and collect, organize, and display relevant
  data to answer them.
• K-3 Have the number of hurricanes that have
  hit the United States increased or decreased in
  the past 154 years?
• Data was collected from the United States
  National Hurricane Center website

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NCTM STANDARDS

• The Data Analysis and Probability Standard
  indicates that students should be able to
  formulate questions that can be addressed with
  data and collect, organize, and display relevant
  data to answer them.
• K-3 What hand should you use if you have to
  put beans in a cup?
• We gathered data from a girls club at church
  They had 15 seconds to put beans in a cup They
  did this twice, first with the dominant hand,
  then with the other hand.

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NCTM STANDARDS

• The Data Analysis and Probability Standard
  indicates that students should be able to
  formulate questions that can be addressed with
  data and collect, organize, and display relevant
  data to answer them.
• 10-12 Can people tell what type of water
  (bottled or tap) they chose (as best tasting)?
• We assigned 60 subjects...to two different
  groups. The first group had sample 1 as tap
  water and sample 2 as bottled water. The second
  group had sample 1 as bottled water and sample 2
  as tap water.

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NCTM STANDARDS

• The Communication Standard specifies that
  students should be able to (1) organize and
  consolidate their mathematical thinking through
  communication, (2) communicate their mathematical
  thinking coherently and clearly to peers,
  teachers, and others, and (3) use the language of
  mathematics to express mathematical ideas
  precisely.

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NCTM STANDARDS

• The Communication Standard specifies that
  students should be able to (1) organize and
  consolidate their mathematical thinking through
  communication, (2) communicate their mathematical
  thinking coherently and clearly to peers,
  teachers, and others, and (3) use the language of
  mathematics to express mathematical ideas
  precisely.
• 7-9 This research is designed to explore what
  kinds of stuffed animals children of different
  ages and sexes play with.

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7-9 The length and age histogram shows the
distribution of lengths of animals. If there was
a relationship between age and animal length, the
histogram would have shown more yellow toward the
longer (right side) animals and more red toward
the shorter (left side) animals. This was not
the case.
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NCTM STANDARDS

• The Representation Standard requires that
  students be able to create and use
  representations to organize, record, and to
  communicate mathematical ideas.

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NCTM STANDARDS

• The Representation Standard requires that
  students be able to create and use
  representations to organize, record, and to
  communicate mathematical ideas.
• K-3 What hand should you use if you have to
  put beans in a cup?

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K-3 The dominant hand DID put more beans in the
cup, on average just like WE guessed.
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NCTM STANDARDS

• The Measurement Standard involves gaining an
  understanding of measurable attributes of
  objects.

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NCTM STANDARDS

• The Measurement Standard involves gaining an
  understanding of measurable attributes of
  objects.
• K-3 I wanted to know how to round and learn
  about categories In math I learned how to
  measure in centimeters and wanted to practice it.
  I have just learned how to round to 10 and chose
  that as my category.

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K-3 I am john and I am doing a study about the
stuffed animals of our family. We have lots of
stuffed animals and they are hard to put away.
Mom thinks we dont have too many but I think we
do.
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State Mathematics Standards

• Check the state mathematics standards for your
  own state
• No doubt, participation in the Poster Competition
  will allow you to meet some of your own state
  standards as well as the NCTM Standards

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Utah State Mathematics Standards

• Third Grade Mathematics Standard V
• Students will collect and organize data to make
  predictions and identify basic concepts of
  probability.
• Fourth Grade Mathematics Standard V
• Students will interpret and organize collected
  data to make predictions, answer questions, and
  describe basic concepts of probability.
• Fifth Grade Mathematics Standard V
• Students will construct, analyze, and construct
  reasonable conclusions from data and apply basic
  concepts of probability.
• Sixth Grade Mathematics Standard V
• Students will analyze, draw conclusions, and make
  predictions based upon data and apply basic
  concepts of probability.
• Math 7 Standard V
• Students will understand concepts from
  probability and statistics and apply methods to
  solve problems.

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HOW-TO CREATE A STATISTICS POSTER

• Selecting a topic
• Determining how to display data graphically
• Communicating your message

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SELECTING A TOPIC

• Brainstorm a list of possible topics as a class
  or in groups of up to 4 students
• Be free-thinking
• Do not rush to critique any ideas
• Brainstorm sources for ideas think about
  national, state, regional, local, school issues

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SELECTING A TOPIC

• Critique the ideas as a class or within groups
• If an idea is too broad encourage students to
  narrow
• it down
• Discuss the interest of the topic to the
  students and to others inside and outside the
  class

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SELECTING A TOPIC

• Consider how to collect data on the chosen topic
• Discuss the population of interest sampling
  concerns
• When the study is done, who or what is it you
  want to be able to say something about?
• If data are being collected from individuals, how
  will these persons be selected fairly so they
  represent the population of interest?
• Discuss whether data will be obtained from a
  survey, an experiment, the Internet, from the
  library, etc.
• Discuss challenges with data collection
• Survey questions must be clear pilot survey
• Experiments must be doable and repeatable keep
  them simple
• Data must be obtainable to answer the question of
  interest

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DATA COLLECTION

• Baseball - This broad category must be narrowed
  down. For example, students could compare the
  number of home runs hit by the home run champions
  over the past 40 years in the American and
  National Leagues. Separate graphs for each league
  would allow comparison between the two leagues.
• Television - A student can take a poll of
  students at his school. He can ask each student
  "What is your favorite type of TV show comedy,
  drama, sports, etc. If the student also records
  the students gender (or grade), the student can
  give separate bar charts for comparison.

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DISPLAYING DATA GRAPHICALLY

• Goal of graphs
• The reader of your poster should be able to look
  at the graphs and understand the story of the
  data. It may be useful to think of graphs as
  photos that make it easy for your reader to
  visualize all of the information that you have
  collected.

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DISPLAYING DATA GRAPHICALLY

• Data types
• Qualitative data fall into categories or
  labels, such as the league a homerun champion
  plays in
• Quantitative data are meaningful
  numbers discrete generally counts, such as the
  number of homeruns hit by the league champion
• continuous generally measurements, such as
  the weight of the homerun hitting champion

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DISPLAYING DATA GRAPHICALLY

• Graph Selection
• Qualitative or Discrete bar graphs, pie charts

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DISPLAYING DATA GRAPHICALLY

• Graph Selection
• Continuous histogram, stem-leaf plot, boxplot

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COMMUNICATING YOUR MESSAGE

• Make sure everything on the poster is correct
• There should be one unifying message

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COMMUNICATING YOUR MESSAGE

• Place materials logically on poster

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COMMUNICATING YOUR MESSAGE

• Be Creative

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Common Pitfalls to Avoid

• Title, variable labels, and/or value labels are
  not clear and user-friendly (e.g., no legend is
  provided)
• Graph is incorrect for the type of data
• 3-D items are not securely attached
• Irregular-shaped posters (weigh creativity
  against ease of shipment/handling)
• Topic is of marginal interest (consistent with
  grade level of students)
• It is not obvious how the graphs connect
• Graphs do not provide any new information (i.e.,
  using a bar chart and a pie chart to relay the
  same information)
• Spelling and/or grammar issues

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2007 ASA Poster Competition Winners K-3
S. Carson, A. DeVito, G. Hall, A. Sahadevan, L.
Starkman, and I. Weil - Has There Been Diversity
in the U.S. Presidency? Hathaway Brown Primary
School, Shaker Heights, Ohio.
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2007 ASA Poster Competition Winners 4-6
B. Tilley - Are Hybrid Cars Really More
Economical? Pine-Richland Middle School,
Gibsonia, Pennsylvania
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2007 ASA Poster Competition Winners 7-9
M. Bonner - Favorite Fizz St. Aloysius Academy,
Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania
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2007 ASA Poster Competition Winners 10-12
C. Resnik, G. Burkhardt, and A. Pfrimmer - AFC vs
NFC Peters Township High School, McMurray,
Pennsylvania
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2007 ASA Poster Competition Winners 10-12
D. Tamarkin and A. Simon - Kids Vs. Adults What
They Think of the Drinking and Driving Ages
Beachwood High School, Beachwood, Ohio
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RESOURCES

• For further information on creating a statistics
  poster visit
• www.gvsu.edu/stat/statposter
• and scroll to Articles describing poster
  creation

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TIMELINE

• Jan. 15, 2008 topic selection done
• Feb. 1, 2008 data collection done
• Feb. 15 2008 graphs done
• March 1, 2008 layout of posters
• March 15, 2008 - posters done
• April 1, 2008 posters received deadline
• April 19, 2008 judging of posters

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SEND POSTERS TO

• Statistics Poster Competition
• American Statistical Association
• 732 North Washington Street
• Alexandria, VA 22314

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WEBSITES TO VISIT

• American Statistical Association Poster
  Competition http//www.amstat.org/education/index.
  cfm?fuseactionposter1
• Michigan Statistics Poster Competition
  http//www.gvsu.edu/stat/statposter
• Pennsylvania Poster Competition
  http//www.math.iup.edu/paposters
• Nevada Poster Competition http//www.nevada.edu/n
  vasa
• Connecticut Poster Competition http//www.amstat.o
  rg/chapters/Connecticut/home/Poster/poster_index.h
  tm
• Ohio Poster Competition
• http//www.bio.ri.ccf.org/ASA/poster.html
• New York City Poster Competition
• http//www.nycasa.org/2008postercompetition.html

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www.gvsu.edu/stat/statposter
John Gabrosek and Neal Rogness Department of
Statistics Grand Valley State University Allendale
, Michigan USA gabrosej_at_gvsu.edu rognessn_at_gvsu.edu